A man was arrested in the UK after being reported to the police for sharing a meme online.
"Someone has been caused anxiety based on your social media post, that’s why you’ve being arrested" –@HantsPolice
Read it & weep!😭
The ‘unknown’ can no longer be bullied. You now have a direct line to a group of dedicated people who will help you.@BadLawTeam | @WeAreFairCop pic.twitter.com/qbHcNNEBs8
— The Reclaim Party (@thereclaimparty) July 30, 2022
Darren Brady, 51, who is a Veteran, was placed in handcuffs at his home in Aldershot by members of Hampshire police.
In the video of the arrest, officers can be heard telling him he is being placed under arrest for ‘causing anxiety’.
The material Brady shared depicted the shape of a Swastika formed by adjusting the position of four ‘inclusion flags’.
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1553814020829986816
The UK has seen a number of cases of private citizens being arrested for ‘offensive behaviour’ online.
In 2018 Mark Meechan was found guilty of a hate crime after teaching his girlfriend’s pug, Buddah, to raise its paw on commands such as ‘Sieg Heil’.
Meechan claimed that he did this as a prank to annoy his girlfriend, however BBC reported “court he did not believe Meechan had made the video only to annoy his girlfriend and ruled it was anti-Semitic.”
At the time Comedian Ricky Gervais took to twitter voicing his shock at the ruling by tweeting,
“If you don’t believe in a person’s right to say things that you might find ‘grossly offensive’, then you don’t believe in Freedom of Speech.”
Recently Gript covered the story of police visiting the home of internet personality Kellie Jay Keen accusing her of being “untoward about paedophiles”.